Wikileaks is bringing together some strange coalitions in Australia, individuals with different political views who recognise Julian Assange as a man who has dared challenge the establishment in ways rarely, if ever, seen. Of course the powerful hate him. But truths aren’t so easily dismissed. Only those who care so deeply about maintaining society’s status-quo…
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Sydney’s Daily Telegraph on big Sydney Wikileaks rally
Today’s big rally for Wikileaks in Sydney (I think around 2000 people were there) saw a wide cross section of people outraged with the intimidation of Wikileaks and Julian Assange and the Gillard government’s capitulation to American demands. I spoke and chaired the event. This story appears in the Daily Telegraph: Protestors today converged on…
Assange reminds us who the real hero is
Fascinating Guardian organised online chat yesterday with Julian Assange: Fwoggie I’ll start the ball rolling with a question. You’re an Australian passport holder – would you want return to your own country or is this now out of the question due to potentially being arrested on arrival for releasing cables relating to Australian diplomats and…
Meeting Tony Abbott in Sydney and shooting the Palestinian breeze
Last night I attended an event in central Sydney at Gleebooks with Leader of the Liberal Opposition Tony Abbott and writer and speech-writer Bob Ellis. The room was packed with around 200 people and the two men initially talked about the war in Afghanistan (Abbott backs it, “the best of the worst options” for the…
Australia is increasingly owned by somebody else
My following article appears in Crikey today: The Crikey/ACIJ series on Australian companies profiting from the foreign aid budget is a welcome discussion of the rapid privatisation of services in Australia and overseas, an area largely ignored by the mainstream media. The market, lightly regulated or not, is simply accepted by most commentators as the…
The victim recalls a war crime
My following book review appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on November 29: My Story: The Tale Of A Terrorist Who Wasn’t By Mamdouh Habib; with Julia Collingwood; Scribe, 272 pp, $32.95 Before tortured Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib was released in 2005, then prime minister John Howard said his government didn’t “have any…
The “terrorist” runs free
Former Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks will soon be a free man, no longer needing to report to the police under a draconian control order. He was only recently regarded as a threat to society. Now, apparently, he’s harmless. What changed? It’s called political opportunism to scare the public into believing authorities are protecting…
Judge’s Gitmo Descision
The decision by U.S. military judges to drop all war crimes charges against the only two Guantanamo captives facing trial has thrown plans to take pending cases to trial into dissaray. U.S. military judges dropped all war crimes charges on Monday against the only two Guantanamo captives facing trial, rulings that could preclude trying any…
Real priorities assessed
As ever, The Australian Jewish News (AJN) tackles the big issues and chastises those who dare not to: Jews like to call themselves the People of the Book, but lately, there are more than a few Australian Jews discomfited by the actions of one of their own particularly bookish people – Louise Adler.In the space…
Kafkaesque case of Jose Padilla continues
The past five years of Jose Padilla’s life have epitomized a living hell. To say that his life has been ruined is an understatement. The Bush administration has leapt from one absurd accusation to the next completely undisturbed by the glaring inconsistencies of their case. The prosecution’s objective is the same now as it was…